Marketing & Communications

Social Media Code of Conduct

These guidelines apply to Associated General Contractors staff or members who create or contribute to any kind of Social Media. Whether you log into Twitter, Yelp, Wikipedia, MySpace or Facebook pages, or comment on online media stories these guidelines are for you.

While all Associated General Contractors staff and members are welcome to participate in Social Media, we expect everyone who participates in online commentary to understand and to follow these simple but important guidelines. These rules might sound strict and contain a bit of legal-sounding jargon but please keep in mind that our overall goal is simple: to participate online in a respectful, relevant way that protects our reputation and of course follows the letter and spirit of the law.

1. Be transparent and state that you work or are a member of Associated General Contractors. Your honesty will be noted in the Social Media environment. If you are writing about Associated General Contractors or a competitor, use your real name, identify that you work or are a member of Associated General Contractors, and be clear about your role. If you have a vested interest in what you are discussing, be the first to say so.

2. Never represent yourself or Associated General Contractors in a false, negative or misleading way. All statements must be true, positive and not misleading; all claims must be substantiated.

3. Post meaningful, respectful comments, in other words, please, no spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive.

4. Use common sense and common courtesy: for example, it's best to ask permission to publish or report on conversations that are meant to be private or internal to Associated General Contractors. Make sure your efforts to be transparent don’t violate Associated General Contractors’ privacy, confidentiality and legal guidelines for external commercial speech.

5. Stick to your area of expertise and do feel free to provide unique, individual perspectives on non-confidential activities at Associated General Contractors.

6. When disagreeing with others’ opinions, keep it appropriate and polite. If you find yourself in a situation online that looks as if it's becoming antagonistic, do not get overly defensive and do not disengage from the conversation abruptly: feel free to ask the PR Director for advice and/or to disengage from the dialogue in a polite manner that reflects well on Associated General Contractors.

7. Our policy is NOT to name our competition or non-member names in social media posts. If you want to write generally about the competition or non-members, make sure you behave diplomatically, have the facts straight and that you have the appropriate permissions.

8. Please never comment on anything related to legal matters, litigation or any parties Associated General Contractors may be in litigation with.

9. Never participate in Social Media when the topic being discussed may be considered a crisis situation. Even anonymous comments may be traced back to your or Associated General Contractors’ IP address. Refer all Social Media activity around crisis topics to the senior leadership of Associated General Contractors.

10. Be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy and Associated General Contractors’ confidential information. What you publish is widely accessible and will be around for a long time, so consider the content carefully. The Internet has a long memory.

11. If you plan to connect, friend or “like” our members using your personal social media, we expect you to use the same rules of conduct that would be expected in any public space. If you use your personal social media as a place for making political, religious, highly personal or off-color comments you should NOT link to our clients. If confronted, you may simply tell them that this is your private space and encourage them to link/connect to the Associated General Contractors corporate social media.

12. You are welcome to check your social networking sites during the day while you are on a break, however you must not let personal use of social media interfere with work.

Associated General Contractors reserves the right to change these guidelines at any time at its sole discretion.